Publishing e-books for Kindle and other formats is a great way to develop readership and earn extra income. While there are some technical complexities, it's not as hard as you might think. Here are a few different options for publishing e-books.
CreateSpace
When I upload a print book to CreateSpace, I'm given the option to export my book to the Kindle store. This converts it to the correct format and includes cover art. If the book is mine (as opposed to a public domain work), I can also choose to enroll in KDP Select, which makes my book available to Kindle Unlimited subscribers. This is both a great marketing and a great revenue-generating tool. I can also earn 70% commission on every sale. Occasionally, though, the conversion from CreateSpace doesn't work exactly the way I want, which is why I like having other options.
Lulu.com
Lulu was on of the first publish on demand companies, and it has a sizable market share. Lulu allows you to create a Microsoft Word document and upload it. The site then converts it to epub format, and can upload it to the Kindle Store and other sites such as Kobo and Barnes & Noble. It's important to properly mark chapter headings so Lulu can generate the table of contents.
Jutoh
Jutoh is an affordable software program that allows you to import a Microsoft Word or Open Office document. The difference between Jutoh and the previous two options is that Jutoh gives you more control over the appearance of your book. While CreateSpace and Lulu do a pretty good job with most standard formats, Jutoh allows you to have greater control over picture size and placement, among other things.
I've had good success with all three of these options, and it's nice to have several tools in my e-book toolbox so that I can use the right one for each project. For my last project, a combination of all three approaches was quite effective.
The world of e-book publishing is developing rapidly, and the opportunities for aspiring writers are limitless.
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